i (PIO2011/stage 2)

Joe kicked it off by creating a really great song called "Imaginary Numbers" providing four tracks: bass, guitar, vocal, and drum loop. Joe posted his original version with his lyrics, so i won't copy the lyrics here

although the challenge rules gave me three days to do my work before passing it along to Jack (davisamerica), something came up and i ended up having only one day to complete this

i did a small bit of arranging, removed a brief break between the chorus and second verse (it seemed like it needed to keep moving along there) and repeated the chorus at the end an extra time for the fade. cutting the tracks went fairly well, although removing the clicks from the bass track was a pain (why does bass always have click troubles with splices?)

i also replaced the chords for the bridge: the original just didn't work for me. so i found something new to fit the existing vocals and bass

on the vocals, i layered the chorus repeats over each other to get a double-tracked effect. i also doubled up the verses by mixing in a copy with pitch correction turned way up - it adds just the right amount of flanging

in a way, the bridge is the most profound part of the lyrics, so i layered on some voice transformed copies: an octave up, and an octave down, with ridiculously huge matrix reverb, and some choir backup to boot. i hope it worked

since i changed the chords for the bridge (and therefore i had no guitar track for it), i doubled all the guitar track on piano throughout the verses and chorus. that way, when the bridge shows up there is still some continuity provided by the piano since the guitar had to drop away there.

i left the bass track as is, except for those splices, and one little fade in during opening of the bridge

i totally tossed out the drum loop, and made up my own. i thought the feeling of the song was better suited to one-two-THREE-four. but i did steal a few fills from loops and modified them. it would be much better with real drums

finally, i added a little echoey piano motif at the beginning and the end just because, plus added some rumbling universe-sized noises for intro and extro

Holy Cow!
This is awesome. You gave it such a trippy sound, especially from the bridge on. Your chord changes there are so much better than mine (so are the drums). I love it. I literally got chill bumps. This is just fantastic! I can't wait until I can listen at home through real speakers.

Until I read the other comments
I was fine with the vocal placement - and I think I still am. I tend to set vocals back myself. Excellent work on the drum and bridge changes. Also - the layered vocal work is awesome. Very cool take on the original.